A while
back I had heard that there are restaurants where you dine in a pitch black
room. Since you can’t see what you are eating, your other senses get enhanced
and the flavors hit you in full effect. You can combine it with a date with
someone you’ve never seen before to make sure that you do not judge that person
based on their looks and instead you will get a feeling if you like the date or
not based on your personalities.
Even though
I’ve never tried one of those restaurants (and never even been on a blind
date), I heard of a museum with more or less the same concept. “Dialogue in the
Dark” lets the visitors experience how around 1.5 hours in the life of a
completely blind person is. After leaving your valuables in a locker, you are
ushered into an elevator and then a room with dim lights where you get
instructions and a white cane to use to navigate the museum. The next room is
where the whole experience starts.
In total
darkness, you are greeted by a new, smooth voice of a guide who will take you around
the museum. After getting acquainted with the voices and smells (on this hot
April day!) of the other visitors, you’ll start following the wall until the
ground and the wall change shapes. During the trip, you will cross unstable
bridges, listen to birds chirping in the park, being overwhelmed by boat motor
and marketplace sounds, identify groceries with only your hands and sense of
smell, and finally visit a café to relax after an intense journey.
The
experience really puts into perspective how we take our sight for granted and
you begin to understand how it is to live and function in society as a blind
person. Because only seeing how a
blind person walks and acts on the street is nowhere close to the understanding
that “Dialogue in the Dark” provides.